Expendable non-woven wearing apparel

ABSTRACT

EXPENDABLE WEARING APPAREL FORMED OF TWO-DIMENSIONAL BLANKS PREFERABLY OF NON-WOVEN FABRIC MATERIAL, THE BLANKS HAVING A CRUCIFORM PROFILE TO DEFINE A CROTCH PORTION AS WELL AS FLY, SEAT AND SIDE FLAPS EXTENDING THEREFROM. THE CROTCH PORTION IS PROVIDED WITH EXPANDABLE LEG HOLES, WHEREAS THE FLAPS HAVE COMPLEMENTARY APERTURES THEREIN TO RECEIVE FASTENERS, THE APERTURES BEING SO PLACED THAT WHEN THE FLAPS ARE RAISED ABOUT THE WEARER, THE FLY AND SEAT FLAPS MAY BE CONNECTED TO THE SIDE FLAPS TO DEFINE SHORT PANTS, A ROMPER OR A SIMILAR ARTICLE OF APPAREL.

@fi 19711 5, ZAM|ST 3,611,44Q

EXPENDABLE NON'WOVEN WEARING APPAREL Filed April 24. 1970 lNVliN'lllRUnited States Patent ABSTRACT OF THE DISCLOSURE Expendable wearingapparel formed of two-dimensional blanks preferably of non-woven fabricmaterial, the blanks having a cruciform profile to define a crotchportion as well as fly, seat and side flaps extending therefrom.

The crotch portion is provided with expandable leg holes, whereas theflaps have complementary apertures therein to receive fasteners, theapertures being so placed that when the flaps are raised about thewearer, the fly and seat flaps may be connected to the side flaps todefine short pants, a romper or a similar article of apparel.

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION This invention relates generally to wearingapparel and more particularly to expendable or disposable garmentsfabricated of low-cost, non-woven material and taking the form of pants,rompers or other items having leg openings.

A non-woven material may generally be described as a coherent sheet ofentangled or bonded fibers made without the fibers first being spun intoyarns and thereafter interlaced by weaving, knitting, braiding or othermeans of yarn manipulation. Among the materials used in making non-wovenfabrics are papers, needled felts, battings, and other forms of textilesproduced by forming synthetic fibers into a web and causing the fibersto adhere to each other.

While non-woven materials in the apparel field have been the subject ofan enormous amount of interest, their actual use has been limitedlargely to interfacing and as felt-replacement materials for shoulderpads,belts, and the like. Non-woven fabrics have been considered forouterwear purposes, but little use has been made of them in this field.

Non-woven fabrics are not properly classified as disposable items,except in special cases where woven or knitted structures are alsodisposable, as in surgical bandages. Non-woven materials are basicallypermanent textiles. However, within the context of the presentinvention, where the desideratum is low cost, the choice of materialsand the fabrication technique are deliberately such as to afford anattractive garment having good wearability, which garment, because itincludes no investment in tailoring, may nevertheless be discardedwithout sacrifice after one or two uses. 1

In an increasingly mobile society, there exists a growing need fordisposable clothing which lends itself to compact storage and packaging,and which may be put to use when the occasion arises and discarded afterserving its purpose. The typical American family is constantly on thego, and whatever the means of transportation, the family is faced withthe problem of providing an adequate supply of garments suitable forchanging conditions encountered in the course of travel. Where, forexample, parents on a trip are accompanied by two or more children orteenagers, the number of items which can conveniently be brought alongalmost invariably falls short of actual clothing requirements andcreates a laundry problem.

In attempts heretofore made to fabricate disposable clothing of paper orlow-cost synthetic, non-woven materials, the garment material has beenpreformed or "ice tailored to shape by sewing, heat-sealing, or evenglueing. Non-woven fabrics made of paper ordinarily cannot bemachine-sewed, for the usual feeding operation tends to introducecreases in the paper and to otherwise mar the surface of the fabric.While the paperrnay be glued, the resultant seam tends to be somewhatstiff and unattractive and may include gaps of adhesion.

In any case, when a disposable garment is tailored to final form, itsultimate price must take into account the cost of the sewing, pressingand other operations carried out in manufacturing the garment. As aconsequence, these garments inevitably fall in a price range which doesnot admit of disposability, except as an extravagance.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION In view of the foregoing, it is the primaryobject of this invention to provide low-cost expendable or disposableapparel, which apparel is constituted by a blank of fabric materialcapable of being assembled into pants, rompers or any other articlehaving leg holes, without sewing, heat-sealing, glueing or any otheroperation heretofore performed in manufacturing such apparel. While theinvention is mainly intended for disposable apparel, it will berecognized that the same principles are applicable to low-cost permanentapparel.

More specifically, it is an object of the invention to provide apparelof the above-described type in the form of two-dimensional blanks in acruciform profile and having complementary sets of apertures therein,whereby the contoured blank, which is packagable in flat, folded orcylindrical form, may readily be converted into a threedimensionalgarment by passing laces or other fasteners through appropriateapertures.

A significant advantage of the invention is that because it ispackagable in compact fiat, folded or cylindrical form, it may bedistributed through vending machines as well as by conventionalover-the-counter sales or through selfservice racks in stores. Atraveling family may lay in a large and varied supply of such packagesor purchase them on route and discard the articles after use, so that inreturning from a trip, it will do so with lightened baggage rather thana burden of apparel in need of laundering.

Briefly stated, these objects are accomplished by diecutting a sheet orweb of non-woven material into a twodimensional blank whose profile isdetermined by the form of the garment to be created, the blank having acruciform configuration to define a crotch portion as well as fly, seatand side flaps which, when interconnected by fasteners inserted incomplementary apertures in the flaps, provide pants, a romper or similararticle, the crotch portion having leg holes therein.

OUTLINE OF DRAWING For a better understanding of the invention, as wellas other objects and further features thereof, reference is made to thefollowing detailed description to be read in conjunction with theaccompanying drawing, wherein:

FIG. 1 illustrates the blank for a basic pants-like form in accordancewith the invention;

FIG. 2 shows the article formed from the blank, the fly flap being cutaway to reveal the manner in which the seat flap is attached to the sideflaps;

FIG. 3 shows the blank for a sun-suit in accordance with the invention;

FIG. 4 shows the sun-suit worn by a child;

FIG. 5 shows the blank for a romper in accordance with the invention;

FIG. 6 is a front view of the romper, as worn; and

FIG. 7 is a back view of the romper, as worn.

3 DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION Referring now to FIG. 1, there is shown acontoured blank generally designated by numeral which in practice may bemass-produced by die-cutting the blanks from a continuous web ofnon-woven material or from a stack of sheets. The non-woven material maybe a paper product or formed of rayon, felt or any other availablesynthetic low-cost material.

The nature of the non-woven fabric forms no part of the presentinvention, although the use of resin-reinforced or impregnated paper ispreferred because of the high strength and good textile characteristicsof this lowcost material. While the use of non-woven materials isstressed herein, the invention is also applicable to lowcost wovenfabrics. The terms disposable and expendable are used herein more orless interchangeably. However, one may draw a fine distinction betweenthese terms, for disposable garments, strictly speaking, are thoseintended for a single wearing, after which the garment is discarded,whereas expendable garments are capable of being worn one or severaltimes, it being, however, more economical to dispense with the garmentthan to clean or repair it. Whether the garment is disposable orexpendable depends on the wearing qualities of the material used. Thepresent invention encompasses both expendable and disposable apparel.

Blank 10 has a cruciform profile to define a crotch portion 11, a flyflap 12, a seat flap 13 and opposing side flaps 14 and 15, all integralwith the crotch portion. Cut into the crotch portion are a pair of legopenings 16 and 17 whose peripheries are scalloped to allow forexpansion of the openings when legs are inserted therein.

Punched into the flaps at strategic positions are complementary sets ofapertures. Thus fiy flap 12 is provided on either side with apertures12A and 12B which complement apertures 14A and B, respectively, of sideflaps 14 and 15. Seat flap 13 is provided with apertures 13A and 13Bwhich complement apertures 15A and 14B in the side flaps.

It is to be noted that seat flap 13 is provided with foldable sidepanels 13P and 13P defined by score lines, such that when these panelsare folded in and attached to side flaps 14 and 15, as shown in FIG. 2,a reinforcing gusset is formed thereby.

The flaps are held together by laces or other forms of removablefasteners such as stud buttons inserted in the complementary holes. Forpurposes of storage and shipment, blank 10 may be neatly folded orrolled into a small package and housed within a sealed transparentenvelope which also encloses the necessary fasteners. After the packageis opened, the blank may be unfolded, and the fasteners applied by thewearer to convert the two-dimensional blank into a three-dimensionalgarment.

In practice the pants are first assembled by connecting together allflaps but one, to make it easy for the wearer to insert his legs in theleg holes, after which the last flap is fastened.

Because the fly flap and the seat flap may be separately detached, it isnot necessary to remove the pants to carry out body functions.

The arrangement shown in FIGS. 3 and 4 is a variant of that in FIGS. 1and 2, but operates on similar principles to provide an expendablesun-suit. Blank 19 has a cruciform profile to define fly flap 20, seatflap 21 and side flaps 2:2 and 23 as well as a crotch portion 24. Thecrotch portion has leg holes 25 and 26 cut therein. The flaps havecomplementary apertures to facilitate their joining together, and thefly and seat flaps have foldable panel sections to provide gussets. Seatflap 21 is provided with a suspender extension 27 which, when thegarment is assembled, is hitched onto the fly flap in the manner shownin FIG. 4.

A still more elaborate version of the invention is shown in FIGS. 5, 6and 7, where a romper is formed from a cruciform blank 28, again havinga fly flap 29, a seat flap 30, and side flaps 31 and 32, with leg holes33 and 34 cut in the crotch portion 35. But in this instance, fiy flap29 includes a front panel extension 36 having shoulder tab pieces 37 and38, whereas the side flaps 31 and 32 include tab extensions 31A and 31B,and 32A and 32B, which, when the romper is assembled, fasten onto thefront panel as shown.

While there have been shown and described preferred embodiments of theexpendable non-woven wearing apparel of the invention, it will beappreciated that many changes and modifications may be made thereinwithout, however, departing from the essential spirit of the invention.

I claim:

1. An expendable or disposable article of wearing apparel comprising atwo-dimensional contoured blank of fabric material of uniform thickness,said blank having a cruciform pro-file defining a central crotchportion, a fly flap, a seat flap and opposing side flaps, each of saidflaps extending outwardly from said crotch portion to define saidcruciform profile, said crotch portion having leg holes therein, saidflaps having complementary apertures therein to receive fasteners, theapertures being so placed that when the legs of the wearer are insertedin the holes and the flaps raised about the wearer, the flaps may beinterconnected by the fasteners to define pants, a romper or similararticle of apparel.

,2. An article as set forth in claim 1, wherein said leg holes arescalloped to render them expandable.

3. An article as set forth in claim 1, wherein said blank is formed ofnon-woven fabric material.

4. An article as set forth in claim 3, wherein said material isresin-reinforced paper.

5. An article as set forth in claim 1, wherein said seat flap includes asuspender extension which is attachable to said fly flap.

6. An article as set forth in claim 1, wherein said fly flap includesshoulder-piece extensions which extend over the shoulder and areattachable to said seat flap.

References Cited UNITED STATES PATENTS 2,411,129 11/1946 dAprile 2.-224A 2,525,170 10/1950 Ehrlich 2-224 A 3,078,467 2/1963 Artzt 2--114 X3,435,461 1/1969 Artzt 283 H. HAMPTON HUNTER, Primary Examiner

